A long time ago Labour governments in Britain used to do things like build council houses, establish a National Health Service and take major industries like rail, electricity and steel into public ownership.
Now they engage in imperialist wars, help to privatise essential industries in the developing world and brag about how few rights workers in Britain have compared to France or Germany.
When it comes to restricting civil liberties, demonising asylum seekers or adopting economic policies that favour the better off, you have to look hard to tell the difference between New Labour and the Conservative Party or Italy's Silvio Berlusconi.
That's why New Labour has lost half its members since it came to power in 1997. It helps explain why unions like the fire fighters and the rail workers no longer want to be part of it.
But people are still very interested in politics. You just have to look at the European Social Forum or the enormous anti-war marches to see that.
So it was inevitable that sooner or later a new political organisation would be created to express working class disgust with the war, racism and neo-liberalism.
RESPECT – the Unity Coalition is becoming the voice of those who want to help change British society. It stands for:
R = respect
E = equality
S = socialism
P = peace
E = environment C = community T = trade unionism
For an organisation that was only established in January it has had an incredible first few months.
By June it had a councillor elected in the London borough of Tower Hamlets, and soon made its mark in a number of other London and local elections.
But RESPECT is not just about contesting at the ballot box. The coalition brings together almost the entire socialist left, representatives from the muslim community, stop the war activists, leading trade union activists, anti-racists and community campaigners, giving them the political representation they have been denied for so long under New Labour.
The campaign to build support for RESPECT within the unions has created huge debates in their ranks about the failures of New Labour and the need for a political voice for workers whose jobs are being restructured or sold off through privatisation.
RESPECT members are about to vote to accept their first constitution. That says "We aim for a society where wealth is created to meet the needs of the people and not the profits of the corporations.
"We aim to organise opposition to all forms of inequality and injustice, including the increasing abuse of human and democratic rights.
We aim to oppose actively the destruction of the environment, inherent in the profit system, which threatens the future of the planet."
In local communities RESPECT is involved in the fight against government plans to introduce identity cards. It is also campaigning to defend the civil liberties of asylum seekers and of all prisoners detained without trial as part of the so-called 'war on terror'.
The hallmark of RESPECT is its openness and democracy. Any member can attend its meetings to speak their mind or put forward resolutions knowing that there won't be any of the nasty backroom deals common with New Labour.
Socialist Resistance supporters are enthusiastically working inside RESPECT to help it become the real voice for youth, working people and anti-capitalists and to take forward socialist ideas and policies within its ranks.